Publish Linux Joystick events to a MQTT broker
On Ubuntu:
sudo apt install build-essential libmosquitto-dev
make
You can also automatically install the binary and the udev and systemd template service with this command, but I would recommend to customize Makefile and 50-js2mqtt.rules your needs first:
sudo make install
The complete command-line usage help is available by typing
js2mqtt -h
The file js2mqtt@.service is a template systemd service. To start monitoring /dev/input/js0, you can type:
sudo systemctl start js2mqtt@js0.service
You can replace js0 by any other device name present in /dev/input.
Once started, the joystick events will be sent to a local Mosquitto MQTT server on the topic /js2mqtt/js0.
To automatically boot the service at boot, you need to enable it:
sudo systemctl enable js2mqtt@js0.service
If you need to handle multiple joysticks, you will need to use a custom udev rule to create symbolic links to help differentiate the different js0, js1, etc. The file 50-js2mqtt.rules is provided as an example:
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="input", KERNEL=="js*", ATTRS{name}=="Microsoft X-Box One Elite pad", SYMLINK+="input/xboxpad", TAG+="systemd", ENV{SYSTEMD_WANTS}="js2mqtt@xboxpad.service"
When a Microsoft X-Box One Elite pad joystick is plugged, udev automatically create a device name called /dev/input/xboxpad. This rule also instructs systemd to start the service js2mqtt@xboxpad.service. In that scenario, you don't need to enable the service with systemctl enable.
Copyright 2020 Cedric Priscal
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